Can you think of a better way to celebrate Earth Week than with an entire week full of green crafts? We sure can’t, which is why we’re celebrating Earth Week by sharing some of our favorite eco-friednly creations! To honor the Earth and all of it’s greenery, FaveCrafts.com and its sister sites are challenging you to craft green all week long! The best part is that this fun and simple challenge comes with big reward! Today is the last day to enter to win one of two exciting Earth Week prizes. Find the complete contest rules, today’s green tutorial, and enter to win the giveaway below.

*This giveaway is now over. Please enjoy the free tutorial below.

Today is the final day of Earth Week, and we’re going out strong with this trendy and useful tutorial from Jo-Anna at A Pretty Life in the Suburbs. With this handy mason jar idea you’ll learn how to make a sensible and stylish soap dispenser for your home that honors the Earth. This one-of-a-kind Mason Jar Soap Dispenser will give your bathroom a rustic and relaxed feel that your guests will love.

Transforming old mason jars into soap dispensers is one of the most unique uses for these trendy containers that we have encountered! The Mason Jar Soap Dispenser is also one of our thriftiest Earth Week ideas, because you’ll use this homemade soap dispenser every day. Instead of adding to the clutter on the green Earth, work on creating recycled crafts like this one to express your creativity and honor the planet during Earth Week. Get the free pattern tutorial here.

Mason jars are the best! Create more projects using mason jars with these free projects!

Earth Week Giveaway

Leave a comment on the blog for your chance to win one of the two Earth Week prizes. One lucky winner will win a Wool Felt Bug Kit and an Art Journal Kit from Arterro, and another lucky winner will win two hanks of At the Bahamas: Multi Colored Recycled Sari Silk Ribbon Yarn from Darn Good Yarn. Today is your last chance to enter so don’t miss out!

Bonus! As a gift to all Earth Week participants, when shopping with Arterro enter the coupon code FAVE20 for 20% off any order through May 1st.

OFFICIAL RULES

There is a maximum of one entry per person per day. The entry will be based upon a comment left on this blog post. Duplicate comments will be deleted and are not tallied. You can comment once a day on each blog post.

What is your favorite way to craft with old mason jars? Tell us about it below!

To celebrate earth week, we thought we would join in on some green crafting! Now for crocheters and knitters, this may seem a little difficult, but there are plenty of ways we can hop on the green crafting challenge. Just by using up your extra yarn scraps, you are recycling yarn that others normally throw away. Another way you can reuse and recycle yarn to to head to your local thrift store and pick up some sweaters, and re-purpose the yarn to crochet or knit something new. To honor the Earth and all that it encompasses, we are challenging you to craft green. This small challenge comes with big reward. Return daily to enter to win one of two exciting Earth Week prizes. Find the contest rules and enter below.

Today is the second to last day of Earth Week, and we’re pushing through the end of the week with this Earth Day Afghan from Caron. With this free crochet afghan pattern, you’ll learn how to make an afghan using Caron’s own Simply Soft Eco yarn which is made from recycled plastic bottles. According to Caron,”Every 10 skeins of Simply Soft Eco saves 6 plastic bottles from America’s landfills.” How cool is that?

Earth Week Giveaway

Return daily to comment on the blog for your chance to win one of the two Earth Week prizes. One lucky winner will win a Wool Felt Bug Kit and an Art Journal Kit from Arterro, and another lucky winner will win two hanks of At the Bahamas: Multi Colored Recycled Sari Silk Ribbon Yarn from Darn Good Yarn.

Bonus! As a gift to all Earth Week participants, when shopping with Arterro enter the coupon code FAVE20 for 20% off any order through May 1st.

OFFICIAL RULES

There is a maximum of one entry per person per day. The entry will be based upon a comment left on this blog post. Duplicate comments will be deleted and are not tallied. You can comment once a day on each blog post.

Hey there it’s Latrice with a fun and fast project that you can make right now. It’s perfect for kids- I’m actually going to be doing this with my group of Girl Scouts this week in honor of Earth Day. This project uses something we all have on a daily basis but usually toss. While exploring Pinterest, I have come across my fair share of projects using toilet paper tubes, so I decided to create something myself.

Materials:

Toilet paper tube

Random packaging insert (chipboard)

Glue stick

Hot glue gun

Buttons (even better is they are ones you have from old shirts!)

Corner rounder

Scraps of patterned paper

Instructions:

I started by cutting my paper pieces to fit. The base is 4” X 4” and the tube needed a piece that was 4-¼” X 6-¼”. Adhere the paper to both with a simple glue stick. You also could staple or use Washi Tape to keep it on there.

Next up you’ll want to use your glue gun to attach the tube to the base. The base gives it stability to be able to hold pencils.

Now the hard parts are done. Last you just have to embellish to your hearts desire and fill with nice sharp pencils.

My daughter wanted to make one for every friend. She could too, because I never toss my TP tubes.

I have to say, this RE-Love challenge from Michaels has been so much fun! I’m so glad that I went a little outside of my comfort zone and tried something new. I’ve never worked with metal before so learning how to work with metal was both challenging and rewarding. (see my first post here to see the beginnings of my project and more).

One of my favorite parts about crafting with new materials, in this case, recycled materials, is the learning process. At first I thought, “hey, this will be easy peasy!” but I found out quickly that improvising is one of the best parts about crafting. Plus, now that I’ve figured out how to create my project, now you can too!

I decided to add some more materials from my last post. These included beads, hemp, thread, suede, and feathers from Michaels. I love jewelry making in general, so it’s no surprise that I have boxes and boxes of jewelry supplies that need organization. This also means I have pieces of broken jewelry and other materials available to be re-used. To make this recycling project use even more “recycled” materials, I gathered up some pieces of beach glass and shells from a recent trip to California.

I love the beach. I’ve combed beaches with my family for years searching for pieces of beach glass. Although the glass comes from broken beer and wine bottles left on the beach or thrown into the water, the water polishes these pieces smooth and makes them beautiful. It’s like the water is choosing to do a recycling project of its own. I used wire and wrapped the little pieces of glass and made them into mini charms to go with the spoon pendant.

I made two pendants and each resulted in two very different styled necklaces. The first necklace I made I braided part of the chain with blue hemp cord. To hide the ends of the hemp cord, I wrapped them with dark red embroidery floss which gives the necklace a summery feeling in my opinion. I added green beach glass, a key, and a red feather. This stainless steel spoon pendant says “Live, Laugh, Love.”

The next spoon I tried was a silver spoon. The look was quite different and it definitely required a different style. Remember that Inscriblio tool? Well, I finally got the hang of it and started engraving on my pieces. I found that it was easier to engrave in swirls and curving lines than it was to try more uniform shapes. This is the pendant that I stamped to say “Create” which I thought was quite fitting for the project. I wanted to use gold with this pendant for some reason. It’s been common to see combinations of different colored metals as long as the combination is balanced. So I used a gold chain and a gold key to balance the silver. I added a bird pendant with seed beads, a blue feather, and white beach glass.

My goal is to not let the rest of the spoon go to waste. So my first attempt was to make a bracelet from the handle. I stamped “Love” and inscribed swirly flowers to match the pendant. I plan to try making a spoon ring too. Here is my first bracelet!

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my RE-Love project! I am looking forward to making more spoon pendants in the near future!

Earth Day is quickly approaching, which means (if you haven’t been already) it’s time to start caring for our planet. You can do this in so many different ways, and AllFreeKidsCrafts is here to share how to do it in a FUN way. Help Mother Earth by reusing her items for good. That could mean as a present for someone you love, a craft that will make everyone smile, or a decoration that saves the soil from one extra plastic bottle. You could also grab your favorite little green thumbs and start planting beautiful blossoms to add beauty and fresh air to our everyday lives. For the ultimate list of Earth Day activities for kids, click here.

Whatever you do to help our Earth deserves a giant thank you from the entire population. Since coordinating that might be a bit difficult, I’ll do the honors: Thank you for your contribution to keeping our planet clean and to ensuring many more Earth Days for our children and their children.

BONUS: Crafts from recycled items are thrifty…that means that you are spending a lot less money!

Kids’ Crafts from Milk Jugs and Egg Cartons

The creativity that people possess never ceases to amaze me. It’s not every day that I look at a milk jug and see a Storm Trooper Helmet. Thankfully, though, there are brilliant, artistic minds out there who finish their last egg and immediately see the body of a sail boat. To those innovative imaginations I say, “What??” I also say, “Thank you!” We now can spend days crafting the most fun projects out of items that are sitting in our recycling bins.

Kids’ Crafts from Toilet Paper Rolls

It’s funny to think that an object used in the bathroom has become one of the most-used materials for crafting. But, hey –they’re cheap, and we all have them on hand. Using toilet paper rolls to craft also allows you to feel less guilty about going through a roll a day. You can lean down and kiss the Earth, but you can also say thanks by reusing its resources.

Recycled Crafts from Other Materials

The fun doesn’t stop with old food containers and toilet paper rolls. You never thought that sentence would be said seriously, did you? Really, though, green crafting IS fun! And a ton of it at that. Use bottle caps, water bottles, scrap fabric, spare pieces of yarn; anything you can find, you can use! I challenge you to that. Next time you’re about to throw something away, think if you can use it to make a funky kids’ craft. You may just find that you’re the next Picasso through the process.

Gardening Crafts for Kids

Take a penny, leave a penny. Take a flower, plant a flower. We’ve all picked a beautiful, colorful flower from our green earth, and it’s time for us to return that gift. Plant some seeds, and watch them blossom into presents for our planet.

To celebrate Earth Month, Michaels created a blogger challenge to challenge us to create something new from something old. Taking someone’s trash and making it treasure is no easy feat, but I stepped up to the challenge with a few ideas in mind and my Michaels store down the road.

I started with the idea that I wanted to use metal in some form. It’s not a material I use often in my crafting endeavors, but I know that working with metal has been on my list of “things to do” for awhile. I’ve worked with ceramics, paint, and even wood but metal has not been something I’ve had time to try.

I made a trip to my local thrift shop and picked up a handful of used stainless steel and silver spoons and various other utensils:

Pretty, right? I loved the designs on each handle and the uniqueness of each spoon. I could tell each spoon had a history or a story – a part of a set at one point in time now separated and mismatched. While useful for college students looking for cheap silverware for their apartment, these spoons will most likely sit around for awhile to be eventually thrown out. Not to get sentimental, but I’d like to think I rescued these spoons from ultimate doom.

Now armed with my rescued spoons, I went into my Michaels store and headed straight to the Jewelry section. Here I found tools that will help me re-new these spoons and give them a new life.

Eager to get started, I headed home and got to work. There are a variety of ways to flatten spoons and bend their handles. I haven’t quite mastered all of the techniques just yet, but see all those spoons above? I have plenty of them to experiment on in the future. My chosen method for this particular challenge involves this old vice in my dad’s tool room:

Not pretty, but it does the job. I also decided that perfection wasn’t my goal. I wanted a vintage look and a result that doesn’t scream “I bought this” or “this is perfect.” Part of re-purposing materials is understanding that the materials must speak for themselves. To completely disguise what an object once was almost defeats the purpose. That’s why I want to re-fresh these spoons so that upon closer inspection you can say “hey, that’s a really cool thing you did with that spoon!” Or something like that.

So, after smushing the spoon and using my manly strength (okay, my dad may have helped). I took a hack saw (also my dad’s) and sawed off the handle of the spoon. Using a nifty drill to make a hole in the flattened spoon, and the files from Bead Landing, I ended up with a flattened spoon pendant. But it needed something a little extra of course. So I pounded away and used the letter punches to finish the deal. So far, the RE-Love challenge has taught me to RE-…

Stay tuned for more about my RE-Love project and see the final pieces!

Crafters are coming up with new ways to be thrifty every day by refashioning the items in their home into recycled crafts that look brand new. One of the most popular items we’ve seen this year is very common and surprisingly versatile; toilet paper rolls. Because of how much readers have loved them, the editors at AllFreeChristmasCrafts have put together a new collection of 11 Toilet Paper Roll Crafts that will show you many of the creative ways this recyclable can be used. Look below to see some of what you’ll find:

You can start on your Christmas ornament crafts early or make a DIY decoration to cheer up your room with one of these colorful toilet paper roll crafts. None of the techniques involved are complicated, but the results will be stunning. No one will be able to guess that your handmade Christmas ornaments are made of toilet rolls, especially with all of the creative ways you can embellish them.

The projects included in our collection cover more than just ornaments; you can use your thrifty design skills for any room in your house with some recycling craft and green craft decorations. You can learn to make a garland, add an extra pop to your table, and much more, and all for less.

Whether you’re a crafter looking for a new material for upcycling or one trying to find new projects that you can do with your family, our list of 11 crafts with toilet paper rolls has something for you. Young crafters will enjoy working with a flexible material that can be painted, reshaped, and covered in all kinds of materials, and you can gain access to a number of new ways to not only recycle your toilet rolls, but also reuse your other leftover materials.

There’s no better way to get a fresh start on your crafting in 2013 than with recycled crafts made from toilet paper rolls. You can plan ahead for the holidays with Christmas ornament crafts and DIY Christmas decorations, or you could just spend an afternoon with your young crafters showing them how useful your own household materials can be. With 11 Toilet Paper Roll Crafts in your possession, you’re on your way to being a green crafting master.

If you’re like me, you’re always looking for ways to recycle what’s already in your home to make all new Christmas crafts. Recently, the editors at AllFreeChristmasCrafts have discovered a cool trend that you probably already have the materials for in your home. If you’re a lover of wine or taking refreshments on the go, chances are you have some sort of bottle lying around. Now you don’t have to get rid of it right away, because we’ve put together 19 Ways to Craft with Bottle Parts, a collection full of different crafts that use everything right down to the cork.

The crafts included in 19 Ways to Crafts with Bottle Parts are all about showing you how to be more eco-friendly with your crafting. These projects can be as simple as cutting and pasting, but the results are always impressive. You could decorate your whole house with these recycling crafts. Get the whole family involved so they can see how fun recycling can be too.

Wine is an elegant part of a Christmas meal, and now you can use wine bottles to create elegant Christmas decorations. Refashioning projects are popular right now, so these bottle crafts are the perfect way to start bringing new life into old recyclables. You’re sure to find at least one technique that you’ll want to use to impress your party guests this year.These also make thoughtful thank-you gifts for the host or hostess of the next Christmas party you’ll be attending.

Glass bottles aren’t the only items you can use to make decorative bottle craft ornaments. Plastic and cork in particular are two very versatile materials that can be transformed into everything from Christmas characters to intricate, one-of-a-kind snowflakes. Handmade Christmas ornaments are always a fun way to personalize your tree.

If you really want to show off your DIY prowess, make your own Christmas fashion jewelry. You’ll be in the spotlight on Christmas for your thrifty crafting abilities, as well as your unique sense of style. All of your friends will be begging you to help them be crafty with their bottles too. Say bye bye to department store prices!

Tabletop trees are fun additions to any room, and with the projects in our collection, you’ll be able to make your own bottle craft trees. Depending on the types of materials you have, you can go for something simple or something totally bold and different. Either way, it’s guaranteed that no one else will have a tree like yours. Many of these crafting techniques are ones you’ll want to use for your home decor crafts during other parts of the year as well.

Already gathering bottles in excitement? Then be sure to head over to our site for the rest of the projects included in 19 Ways to Craft with Bottle Parts. Not only will your decor pop, but you’ll have found ways to decorate your entire home without spending more than a few dollars.

Looking for some clever ways to use up items around your home? If you have an overflowing stash of toilet paper rolls, Mason Jars, pop cans, water bottles, fabric scraps, and newspapers, this eBook is for you! Filled with tons of creative ways to turn your trash into treasure, this creative crafting guide will help you declutter your home, organize your living space, and even show you how to make your very own home accents using items that are in your recycling bin right now! From simple organizers to beautiful pieces of jewelry, the projects in Trash to Treasure: 28 Recycled Crafts will leave you inspired to find a new way to use everything in your home.

With special sections devoted to tin cans and aluminum crafts, wine bottles, tee shirts, toilet paper rolls and much more, this eBook will help you create useful and decorative crafts using materials that are sitting in your garage right now.

Perhaps one of the most overlooked trash piece is the simple toilet paper roll. Once a roll is gone, you just toss out the cardboard tube, but there are tons of ways that you can reuse that tube and make something to help beautify your home. You can also reuse old juice cartons, ribbon spools, and other cardboard leftovers to make crafty treasures. Best of all, you can find all these ideas in our free eBook, Trash to Treasure: 28 Recycled Crafts.

If you’re looking for a clever way to put an old toilet paper roll to use, try making this Paper Tube Lavender Sachet. Made with left over craft pieces, this simple and fun craft is a great gift for all the ladies in your life, and is an easy way to work through that recycle bin and put those random odds and ends to use. You can find this project, as well as several other great ideas on how to reuse cardboard, in Trash to Treasure: 28 Recycled Crafts.

With your free copy of Trash to Treasure: 28 Recycled Crafts, you can also subscribe to our Quick and Crafty newsletter to become part of the FaveCrafts community. In subscribing to the newsletter, you will receive:

Chances to win books and products from our weekly giveaways and contests.

New FREE patterns and eBooks made available to you throughout the year.

Access to our free pattern library full of over 1,000 of free crafting patterns.

The opportunity to share ideas and help others in the crafting community.

Filled with tons of creative ways to turn your trash into treasure, this creative crafting guide will help you declutter your home, organize your living space, and even show you how to make your very own home accents using items that are in your recycling bin right now! So be sure to download our free eBook, Trash to Treasure: 28 Recycled Crafts, today!

We at Tip Hero have featured some great ideas for transforming cardboard boxes in the past, but there were some ideas featured over at Boys Germs that we couldn’t help but share. It truly is amazing how a simple cardboard box can be transformed into something completely different, sometimes even taking your child to a whole other world for a few hours. Here are some truly creative ways to use boxes when you want to create some free fun for your kids:

Full Project Tutorials

It’s that time of the year when families and friends start jetsetting around the globe to visit with loved ones for the holidays. The bustling airports and packed highways are filled with packed suitcases. If you want to ensure that you get your belongings at your end location or to make sure nothing gets lost, […]